Command the Fees You Deserve

Lesson 22 of 44

How to Locate a Viable Market

Command the Fees You Deserve

Lesson 22 of 44

How to Locate a Viable Market

Lesson Info

How to Locate a Viable Market

Lesson twenty is had a locate a viable market this is the last lesson in this segment and really this is a question right? This is building on all the things we've learned already about how to focus and how to choose a market and now you've got your three possible highest scoring markets and you're not sure which one is the most viable because you can't really focus on three at a time you have to start I like to use the image of juggling get one ball in the air and once that is in the air then you can start to focus on another market so there are certain things you need to know to determine whether something is a viable market so what groups in other words, what trade associations do the people that you want to work with belong to if there is a trade association than it could very well be a viable market right? Because the trade association brings together lists of people events uh directories websites it makes it very easy to find your actual prospects in other words, your clients if ...

you can find a trade association that represents it all right and I'm not necessarily saying join it you don't necessarily have to join it right away but it might not hurt because that will perhaps give you access to the directory might be only available to members, but some uh trade groups put their member directory online in public, like the ii, which is thie architecture association, right. They have a simple, searchable directory of architect, so if that's your market, you won't even have to join the association, but it's a viable market, because they have a directory that you, khun search, and a group that they could belong to you. You need to know where the people who are your prospect meet both online and off, and if you can find those places than it could very well be a viable market, you need to know what they read again, both online and off. This links to content marketing. Also because you could perhaps write articles or compile blawg, post or email newsletters that you've written, and turned it into an article that gets published in the online or offline magazine of the trade association. Or a lot of these organizations are desperate for content, right? Because blog's need content. So you could be a guest blogger on the trade association's website of your target market. I have lots of clients doing that, and finally you need to know what lists they are on. So, again, this is back to directories, it's back to the book of lists from nj biz it's back teo, a list of uh attendees at an event at a conference or maybe you're going to a trade show and all of the exhibitors at the fancy food show are your prospects so you're list your prospect list is the list of exhibitors write it could be as simple as that all the information is there waiting for you now a market is viable if the market is growing not shrinking right things are constantly changing and if you are passionate about a market that is shrinking I wouldn't go after it it's not viable there might be enough work in it for just you maybe but it's probably going to not be able to pay very well right so be choosing markets that are growing as I said before health care technology financial services is healthy there lots of industries that are growing how do you find out you read the papers you know you read bloomberg businessweek you follow the trends to see what is growing it's all out there ah market is viable as I said if you can find a trade association for it right because that pulls together all the essential information if that trade association has a directory of members as I said public and or behind some kind of pay well for members only and sometimes it is worth the fee to join just to get that directory that could be the price of the list basically is your membership and that that trade association puts on events ideally local to you. So you don't have to spend a lot of money traveling, right? The fancy food show is local here in san francisco. And so you went if you had to go to new york where I sometimes I think they sometimes have it on the east coast, too, right? Would you go to the one in new york? You have not every time. Okay. Excellent. So we're looking for associations or events that our local to make it easier for you give you easier access essentially to your prospects. And that is the same point that you can attend trade show. So trade shows, maybe put on by an association or just by an event organizer. You could just look for trade shows for a particular industry, and that will determine also if the market is viable. So the goal here is to find a market that gives you accessible, comprehensive and ideally free resource is to reach your best prospects. That's as simple as it gets right. If you can focus in and figure out who those people are and find the resource is that will give you access to them, then the next step is reaching out to them, which happens to be the next segment how to reach out to your best prospects so before we tell you a little bit about the next segment and do the exercise we have another one of these wonderful what would you do it what would you do if the market your skills are in is shrinking but you love it let's put that question into the chat room j k o and see what people say justin what would you say if the market your skills are in is shrinking but you love it there's no right answer who stumped me actually I think I'm just um what about you rain that maybe look for something related and that's always something that sort of close exactly exactly I think that's a great point that things don't just die up they evolve so what is the evolution of the market that is shrinking? What is the next thing? I'm not thinking of a particular example right now but maybe I will and will come back to it but the idea is what is it turning into instead of focused on what is it oh it's not that anymore I can't do it right very narrow kind of concrete thinking saying what would you say? Yeah I would probably take my skills and transfer them over to a different area for example if your web designer and you're finding that all these companies like square space wordpress are offering all these free templates and you can just build their websites for free right I would probably just focus on the more specialized skill like maybe app development, which is harder to do and not everyone can do it themselves at this point so that's actually that's what I've done, I think the other point also is that if the market is shrinking or changing or not valuing the services that you offer because it's being commoditized for example then you don't necessarily have to leave the market completely. You can go to the minority at the top where they still value the services and we'll pay for it, but that takes much more specific and targeted marketing right? They're not going to find you you have to go find them, but that is an option take care well, this is some of the people are really already dealing with smelly bassis saying for print designers this has become a huge thinks everything's gone digital s so they're saying mary mack says I'd work on getting new skills. Kathleen ellie says finding a new way to serve the same clients by adding services monica illustrator says I would just need to be better at marketing myself or hoop says find a comparable area that's growing on be more competitive the best answer of all of course, came from top tomato he says they'd retired in mexico I love that but you have to have the money to do exactly alright beautiful so the exercise for this lesson. And, of course, all the details are in the workbook is choose one of your highest scoring markets right of the three, choose one. Do a quick google search to essentially get a cursory answer for each of the questions that I asked in. Is it about it's a viable market? If can you find the associations, can you find the events, and if it looks promising, then you continue to explore further. You will know very soon if it's a viable market or not, but you have to really put the effort and the research in, and sometimes you have to talk to people, and sometimes you have to go to the linked in groups that bring these people together. That's, another really good resource and just post questions, right? You're doing research, you're not trying to sell anything, you're just doing research and get people to answer you.

Class Description

Earn more money for the work you love to do – let Ilise Benun show you how in the complete guide to marketing, pricing, and booking freelance work: Command the Fees You Deserve.

Ilise has built a career advising the independently employed. She has authored 7 guidebooks for creative entrepreneurs and runs the popular online freelance resource, The Marketing Mentor. In Command the Fees You Deserve, she will teach you how to land clients who value your services and stop the self-defeating cycle of taking whatever comes along. Ilise will share:

Inspiring ideas for finding and approaching clients

Step-by-step instructions on pricing and proposals

Tips for keeping clients happy and projects on track

You’ll learn how to identify quality prospects, deal with problem clients, and structure your marketing to avoid the feast or famine cycle of freelance work.

Command the Fees You Deserve will help you enjoy greater stability and security by finding the right niche, marketing and pricing your work, and sifting good clients from bad ones.

Rashida B.

I wasn't able to catch this during the day, but I stayed up literally all night for three nights watching the replays. AMAZING. This definitely goes up there with the best of the best and most useful Creativelive courses ever. Pricing isn't the most exciting topic in the world. However, Ilise was passionate about the subject and her enthusiasm made this not only interesting but fun. I loved how she infused it with her vast knowledge and real world examples. Her guests were just as interesting. This was all around GREAT!

Steve-O

Helping others help themselves. Ilise Benun is clear and well-organized. The methods she shares are easy to understand while honest and straightforward in approach, stating from the git-go that work on my part is required. Ilise draws on her own experience as well as the methods and experience of other professionals in this course. She welcomes us into a proven plan for successful growth embracing an attitude of progress rather than perfection and attraction rather than promotion. This is my kind of mentor!

TxWhimsyArtist

Oh wow! My favorite course to date! Ilise's expertise was tremendously helpful. Thanks to Ilise, I'm not &quot;stuck&quot; any longer and I'm so excited to implement the wealth of knowledge I've gained from this master Marketing Mentor. This course is well worth the cost at any price!! Thank you so much Ilise!! Tammy@GammysHouse.com